An enthusiastic teacher turned librarian turned support engineer, I have a diverse background and broad interests. While primarily working with web technology, I have interests in general computing and technology, instruction, accessibility, information management, technical services and metadata, and documentation among others.
I am always on the look out to improve existing services and implement new ones. While not a programmer or developer, I like to learn and I am not afraid to work with and dig into code. My methodology is very much user oriented in all my projects and work (at least as much as possible), and my aim is to improve the user experience and quality of life (at work) for team members.
Outside of GitLab, I mentor students as part of the UBC Arts Co-op Students’ Association mentorship program, which is a one-on-one mentorship program, mostly helping students with their applications, interviews, and professional development. I also mentor through the Aspire mentorship program by Support Driven.
I am also a proud mentor as part of Canada Learning Code (formerly, Ladies Learning Code), a non-profit that holds technology workshops. Mostly, I volunteer for HTML/CSS, web design, WordPress, and Teachers Learning Code, but have also mentored in Photoshop and Hack-a-thon workshops.
Last but not least, I help with organizing conferences and workshops whenever and wherever I can (see the list below).
You can follow me on twitter or find me elsewhere through about.me.
Current Employment
Staff Support Engineer (previously: (Senior) Support Agent, (Senior) Support Engineer) at GitLab (2018 – Present)
- Engage and solve customer problems via email and video conferencing.
- Understand and debug at an expert level.
- Collaborate with engineers and the GitLab Community to escalate and fix bugs, and build new features.
- Liaise and work alongside and across other teams to define and shape goals, priorities, and strategy; collaboratively improve the software, processes, and user relations; and deliver on projects relating to customer experience and success.
- Write in-depth documentation and clarify communications that share knowledge and radiate GitLab’s technical strengths.
- Mentor, with focus on levelling others up to Senior, and train other members, especially in areas of expertise and new features with office hours, pairings, deep dives, and more.
- Build and iterate efficient processes.
- Identify and work on significant projects that result in substantial cost savings or revenue increases.
- Contribute to internal tooling/projects.
- Assist in hiring by reviewing assessments, and performing interviews (both in and outside of Support); and onboarding of team members.
- Participate in the GitLab.com Incident Management rotation to provide 24/7 emergency customer response in coordination with the Production team.
I also freelance and consult in various areas as time permits, including
- accessibility,
- web services,
- user experience,
- metadata and technical services,
- automation and workflow,
- documentation and technical writing,
- and project management.
Most Recent Previous Employment
- Accessibility Consultant: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Report for City of Gulfport, Florida (2018)
- Manager of Technology and Technical Services at the New Westminster Public Library (2016 – 2018)
- Oversaw day-to-day operations in technical services, technology, and assist in other areas.
- Managed acquisitions for library collections including e-resources.
- Managed vendor relationships and contracts related to technology, technical services, and acquisitions.
- Ensured cataloguing and classification of materials balanced industry standards with the needs of library users.
- Managed public facing technology overall.
- Liaised with City IT staff regarding technology used in the library.
- Made recommendations to the Leadership Team regarding the need for emerging hardware, software, and technology services for the public.
- Managed and administered the library’s integrated library system.
- Coordinated and managed reports and statistics relating to technology and technical services, or originating from the ILS.
- Other professional experience includes website redesign/development, web accessibility, user studies/user experience, accessible digital and physical materials, supervision, collaborative software (namely wiki) implementation and administration, information management, reporting, research, planning, collection management, reference, and instruction. For details, please see my LinkedIn profile.
- Other previous experience include teaching, research support, tutoring, office/clerical support, and customer service.
Current and Recent (2 years) Volunteering
- Mentor, Aspire by Support Driven (2019 – Present)
- Mentor, UBC ACSA (Arts Co-op Students’ Association) (2014 – Present)
- Mentor, UBC Online Career Mentor (via Ten Thousand Coffees) (2018 – Present)
- Mentor, Canada Learning Code (previously, Ladies Learning Code) various workshops including HTML & CSS, Web Design , WordPress, Hack sessions (2012 – Present)
- Organizer, Access Conference (2020, 2021)
- Mentor, BCLA Mentorship Program (2013 – 2021)
- Past volunteer work involved organizing and volunteering at tech events, peer reviewing, and mentorship.
Recent (2 years) Presentations & Articles
- UBC’s Student Alumni Council (March 2022): Transitions: Life after Graduation Networking Event
- Support Driven Podcast (July 2021): Origin Stories Episode 9
- Customers Support Leaders podcast (July 2021): 212: Knowledge Management
- Brown Tech Bae Podcast (June 2021): The Journey into Tech Series with Cynthia
- UBC iSchool Career Development Talks series (March 2021): My journey from library technology to tech
- GitLab Virtual Contribute (April 2020): Fireside Chat with the Women of GitLab
- Write the Docs Podcast (February 2020): Episode 27: Starting a doc group/process when you’re the first
Education
I finished my Master’s in Library and Information Studies (MLIS) at the University of British Columbia’s (UBC) School of Library, Archival, and Information Studies (SLAIS) in December 2011 and officially graduated in May 2012.
Previously, I completed a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Psychology, then a Bachelor of Education, but began as a student in Software Engineering and Mathematics (at what is now SFU Surrey, but used to be TechBC).
Selection of Work
My previous presentations, articles, and blog posts cover accessibility, web technology, library services, managing projects and teams, and work/community culture. Since continually adding to the list will get too long, a selection of all blog posts and externally published work is below, broken down by topic, then in reverse chronological order:
Work/Community Culture & Similar
- Being/Becoming a Senior Support Engineer (GitLab, 2021)
- Choosing not to go into management (again) (GitLab, 2021)
- Implementing Values: What we (libraries & co) can learn from GitLab (2019)
- Code4LibBC 2017 (December 2017): Code4lib(BC): What It’s All About
- University of British Columbia, School of Library, Archives, and Information Studies, ePortfolio (September 2017): Interview on benefits to an online portfolio
- Yet Another Tips Post on Job Applications (NWPL, 2016)
- BCLA Perspectives Vol. 7 Issue 1 (November 2015): Code4Lib is for you, for me, for everyone
- The Pastry Box Project October 1, 2015: Better Than Christmas Morning: Finding Your Motivation
- The Pastry Box Project September 21, 2015: A Community Supported on Obsolete Technology
Project Management & Workflow
- Prioritizing work in Support (GitLab, 2020)
- Education Institution (September 2017 webinar): Reviewing and Improving Workflow and Productivity
- Implementing a “Nearly Limitless” Circulation Pilot and Adding an “Express TV” Collection (NWPL, 2017)
- Florida Library Webinars (March 2017): Reviewing and Improving Workflow and Productivity: Methods and Tools
- Code4LibBC 2016 (December 2016): Getting Things Done: Discovering Efficiencies in Workflow
- Workflow Review Rationale (NWPL, 2017)
- Issue Tracker (Redmine) Implementation & Uptake (Ryerson, 2013)
- Getting Staff on Board and Moved to WordPress (Ryerson, 2012)
Accessibility
- Education Institute (October 2018): Evaluating Your Website for Accessibility Compliance and WCAG 2.1
- Cowichan WordPress Meetup (August 2018): Making Accessible Content and Websites in WordPress
- Florida Library Webinars (August 2018): Auditing Your Website for Accessibility Compliance and Understanding How ADA Applies
- Weave Journal of Library User Experience, Issue 7 (October 2017): A Practical Guide to Improving Web Accessibility
- Code4Lib Journal, Issue 37 (July 2017): A Practical Starter Guide on Developing Accessible Websites
- Write the Docs (May 2017): Write the Accessible Docs Lightning Talk
- University of Pittsburgh (February 2015) and Justice Institute of British Columbia (JIBC) (March 2016): Making Accessible Content Easy and Part of Your Work
- LIBR 2411: Library Technologies and Information Management at Langara College (October 2015 guest lecture): Accessibility is About Your Users
- Accessible Format Production: Overview, Part 1 & Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6 (NNELS, 2015)
- Accessible Formats Overview (NNELS, 2015)
- Persona work for the BC Open Textbook Accessibility Toolkit (February 2015)
- Access 2014 (October): We’re All Disabled! Part 2: Building Accessible (Web) Services with Universal Design
- LibTechConf 2014 (March): We Are All Disabled! Universal Web Design Making Web Services Accessible for Everyone
- ACRL TechConnect (October 2012): Making Your Website Accessible Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 (WCAG focused)
(Web) Design, Development, User Experience & Usability
- Website Redesign: Making It Responsive & Phased Homepage Redesign (NNELS, 2015-2016)
- Code4Lib BC Spring Workshop (May 2014): Usability On a Budget
- Accessible WordPress TwentyTwelve Child Theme & Update (CAPER-BC, 2014)
- Wiki: Move & Content Reorganization (CAPER-BC, 2013)
- TRY Conference 2013: RULA Bookfinder: Getting People to their Books Fast! – Project 2013 Winner of the CLA/OCLC Award for Innovative Technology
- A Revision & Webpage Redesign: Help Section, Articles Section, Digital Commons Home Page, About Us Section, Services Section, Contact Us Page (Ryerson, 2012-2013)
- Creating a WordPress Theme Options Page (Ryerson, 2012)
- UBC Education Library Redesign (Assignment, 2011)
- Help Portal [Content Analysis Statistics, Draft IA, Card Sort, Launch, Timeline] (UBC, 2010-2011)
Technical Services, Library Collections, & Metadata
- Horizon ILS Administration: Creating Custom Reports, Circulation Rules, & Learning to be an ILS Administrator (NWPL, 2017)
- Code4LibBC 2015 (November): Semi-Automated Editing Metadata and MARC Records
- Merging Control Numbers into MARC Records (NNELS, 2015)
- Using Regex in MarcEdit to Fix Repeated Subfields (NNELS, 2015)